Mobile 3D planned for MeeGo Linux

Intel and Nokia are reviving the spirit of Second Life with plans for 3D interfaces on mobile devices running their MeeGo Linux distro. The companies have announced their first joint innovation center at Finland's Oulu University, and it will specialize in the development of 3D interfaces and environments for MeeGo. Intel and …

[Matt K]

Really?

"3D will finally see off gaming and collaboration on the multi-touch iPad and iPhone"

Of course it will. Because what everyone wants is an overhyped, buzzword-laden "look at me" technology rather than, say, the ability to play a quick game of Scrabble or Angry Birds on the tube.

"Twenty four researchers will work during the next three years to build and release projects and code under an open-source license, Intel and Nokia said Monday."

So not something for Android, Microsoft or Apple developers to worry about yet, then. Do Nokia and Intel expect that their competitors won't also be trying to innovate over the next three years?

I used to love my old Nokia candybar phones - simple, usable designs - but this just sounds like a company desperately clawing for attention by throwing buzzwords at the wall and seeing what sticks.

[Dave Bell]

Not Second Life

I seriously doubt that this is going to be anything like Second Life. Think of some of the old Spectrum games which gave a 3D perspective on a world, with added camera movement: I think that's more likely to go with the constraints of bandwidth and display size.

Oh, and I glanced at the link for Second Life. Teens in the main game-space? Haven't they heard of Operation Ore, and the way a non-obvious chance of access to child porn got changed into a certainty by the Police, here and in the USA.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sigh

Those Meego fuckers should work on making their wireless support work out of the box, and keeping their update repo from falling over, and making their basic clients support enough of their protocols to be usable first.

Don't run before you can even crawl, it's horrible, horrible mess- neither fish nor fowl. It's slower than a full Linux distro on my Netbook, and the enormous My First Gui interface feels like shaving with a manatee, in comparison to device interfaces like Android's.

Aaaaand breathe. Sorry, I think the "Meego rocks!" cartoons during installation touched a nerve there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Entirely agree

Add to that basic abilities such as viewing an html file in the browser rather than a text editor. If they spent half the effort on properly working basic functionality that they did on bouncy pop-ups and other irrelevancies, this would have the makings of a useful system.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nokiasoft

I'm not a big fan of Mr Orlowski from El Reg. For many reasons I think he is a presstard, but he pointed out a few things about what's wrong with Nokia in his latest articles (albeit he does it for reasons outside of the true press interest and ethics, no surprise here since he disable comments on 99,99% of his articles...but I digress), and I think Nokia is becoming the newer Microsoft on failures and lack of strategy. Announces and more announces and no real action. Partnering with Intel?? Wtf?? Just because they figure out that they made a HUGE mistake selling the ARM business? Symbian proved more than often that's the best OS for mobile phones and Nokia should have stick with it and developed it to great levels. But no, Ovi PINKY thingy was more important. And the stupid decision to blow 8 BILLION for Navteq??? And now they say that buying Palm would be a bad decision?? We are talking about a outstanding working OS vs Maemo lagging vs Moblin someday vs MeeGo soon but not today vs We will do 3D errr we still don't know when... Nokia its a good example of what bad management and arrogance can do to a company...

[Anonymous Coward]

One more thing about 3D

Nokia don't re-invent the wheel, look at the http://www.openwonderland.org/ project...

[Paul Shirley]

what's the point?

I'm struggling to see the point or even WTF the article title has to do with this white elephant. How does bringing a knock off of Second Life do anything more than bring a knock off of Second Life to more devices? What's the point? Where's the story?

[gaz 7]

Mindshare attempt rather than real interface

This is obviously just a PR trick to try and catch and keep mindshare by showing and demoing shiny shiny tech, rather than boring reliable stuff! Cos the world, and especially the tech press across the pond are only interested in showy trinkets like this.

It's like another meego interface I saw a video for the other day, where all the windows came and went like curtains being drawn across a Window. Very impressive, but in the real world, most people would turn it off after 5 min.

[kurkosdr]

Natural Reserve of lulz

Just when I thought that the natural reserve of lulz known as Debian/Ubuntu and Solaris were about to run out, Nokia and Intel come and provide yet another batch of silly OSes to laugh at on forums.

Seriously: MeeGo, Symbian^3, Symbian^4 etc Does any of these OSes fill in a target group that isn't already occupied by Windows 7 and Android? I would give them a break if they were substansially better and had a bigger app market that Windows 7 and Android, but they are not, so it's just another "me too" attempt to show at investors. Because that;s what IT needs: yet another mobile and desktop OS. And what makes them think the college boys they hired will pull off 3D before microsoft and google? Again, it's another me too attempt.

As the guy above said, the last half-good Nokia phones died when the Series 60 died. Which by the way filled a real target group (candy bar smartphones) and were actually usable (except the gallery and the music player in the n series, perhaps). Now, all we have is bastardized linux and symbian offshoots.

In fact, Nokia as a whole is now a natural reserve of lulz.

PS: Anyone wish there was a real successor to Series 60 for candybar smartphones with keyboards? I am going to miss them.

[Robert Forsyth]

How about

instead of a touch screen or keypad, you just wave your hand(s) about in front of the video camera to interact - like on Avatar.

[annodomini2]

Apple will be stealing this idea next

Wait to see the Apple patent application for this within 2-3 weeks